Bell ringing equipment for wheeled toys



Dec. 12, 1961 M. G. KRETZMER, JR 3,012,365

BELL RINGING EQUIPMENT FOR WHEELED TOYS Filed July 30, 1959 U mun M l: I ET 2 INVNO I M g. 32. 1!: I e 4 E ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,012,365 BELL RlNGlNG EQUIPMENT FOR WHEELED TOYS Minor G. Kretzrner, In, Middle Haddam, Conn., assignor to The A. C. Gilbert Company, New Haven, Conn., a

corporation of Maryland Filed July 30, 1959, Ser. No; 830,642 8 Claims. (Ci. 46-113) of bell ringing by mechanical means that derive motivating force from the rolling of the locomotive traction Wheels along the track when such wheels serve to support wheeled trucks that are connected to swivel and/ or tilt in relation to the locomotive chassis which they carry.

Another object of the invention is to provide a bell sounding mechanism that is mechanically operated in a manner to cause bell ringing only during a predetermined range of frequency of impulsing of'the hammer that strikes the gong or other reverberative body of the bell so that no bell ringing will occur either while the locomotive is standing idle at a station or while the locomotive is proceeding at normal traveling speeds over its right of way. It is desired that the sounding of the bell shall occur only when the locomotive travels at a range of speed less than full speed such as it attains by slowing down as when a train is arriving at a station or by picking up speed when starting from a standstill as when a train is leaving the station.

These and other objects of the invention will appear in fuller detail in connection with the following description of a preferred embodiment of the improvements having reference 'to the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 shows a diesel type of toy locomotive with portions of its superstructure and mechanical parts partially broken away to expose the interior construction.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of an end portion of the locomo tive whereat is located the present improvements in bell ringing mechanism, the roof of the superstructure being partially broken away.

FIG. 3 is an elevation of the locomotive drawn on a reduced scale showing the wheeled trucks tilted in relation to the locomotive chassis to accommodate inclines in the course of the track.

FIG. 4 is a plan view of the locomotive on the same scale as FIG. 3 showing the wheeled trucks swiveled to various positions relative to the locomotive chassis to accommodate traveling around curves in the course'of the track.

The rolling stock chosen to illustrate a preferred embodiment of the improvements comprises a hollow miniature locomotive housing 12 superimposed on a rigid chassis 13 that rides pivotally on two wheeled trucks 14, 15 spaced apart longitudinally of the chassis. Housing 12 is externally contoured and fashioned in detailed imitation of a diesel locomotive and is removably fastened on chassis 13 by screws as at 16 accessible to a screwdriver when the locomotive is overturned.

Truck 14 is the power truck of the locomotive in which is incorporated the electric propulsion motor 19 that drives all four wheels 20 of truck 14 through worm and worm gear connections 21 to the axles 24 of the wheels. The axles are of conductive metal. Truck 14, in unison with its carried motor, is free to tilt in a vertical plane ice relatively to chassis 13 about a horizontal pivot 22 at the lower terminals of the depending arms of a yoke 25 which straddles the motor. See FIG. 3. Truck 14 is also free to swivel relatively to chassis 13 in a horizontal plane about the vertical axis of a higher pivot 23. See FIG. 4. Thus the capacity of truck 14 to move relatively to chassis 13 is such as would result from a universal joint and freely permits the truck to follow the rails 26 of an electrified track without binding or restraint by the chassis even where the course of the rails changes in direction as in rounding a curve or following variations of incline.

Motor 19 is of the alternating current type and is reversible as to direction of running by the suitable switching action of an electro-magnetic relay 28 which may be conventional and carried fixedly on chassis 13. The metallic parts of truck 14 are completely insulated from the metallic chassis 13 at the point of pivotal suspension 23 of the truck by suitable insulative parts 29 in contrast to another truck 15 which is electrically grounded 'to chassis 13 at its pivotal connection 38.

Truck 15 is free to swivel in a horizontal plane relatively to the chassis about the vertical axis of a pivot 3-8. Thus the wheels 39 of truck 15 are free for bodily shifting in unison in random directions relatively to chassis 13. The

axles 60 of wheels 39 are of conductive metal.

The present improvements are concerned with this wheeled truck 15 which by the present invention is made use of to actuate a mechanism that simultates the bell ringing sound characteristic of a diesel engine as when a train is arriving at or departing from a railroad station. Such mechanism must be arranged to accommodate the tilting and swiveling motion of the truck 15 relatively to the car chassis and involves a gong 42 which is supported solely at its center point 43 by means of a bracket 44 upstanding from and fixed on chassis 13 in any suitable way as by a rivet 45. Incidentally bracket 44 can be swung adjustably about rivet 45 owing to a notch 46 cut out of the corner of the bracket 44 which permits a limited amount of preselected swivel adjustment of the bracket about the rivet parallel with the fioor of the chassis and relative to a stop stud 47 that upstands from the chassis. By this adjustment the rim 50 of gong 42, and hence the spot thereon which is to be struck by the hammer head 51, can be shifted either to parallel the longitudinal center line of the chassis or to diverging angularly therefrom as indicated by broken lines in FIG. 2 according to what preselected fixed position of the gong produces the best and loudest tonal effect when the hammer strikes the gong. Hammer head 51 is a small metallic block of bullet nose shape carried at the top end of a long springy stem or arm 52 of resilient strip metal that upstands from truck 15 through a clearance aperture 49 in chassis 13 and is fixedly mounted on the short upstanding branch 53 of a rigid bell crank 54, pivotal about axis 62 whose other, angularly divergent, branch 55 extends in a position to be wiped and displaced intermittently by both ends of an actuating cam 56. Cam 56 is fixed on and rotates in unison with one of the axles 60 of one pair of track wheels of the truck 15. Bell crank branch 55 is constantly pulled yieldingly into contact with cam 56 by an extension spring 61 stretched between branch 55 of the bell crank 54 and its anchorage to the framework of chassis 13.

The general idea of a gong mounted on a vehicle chassis 'to be struck by a hammer actuated intermittently by an eccentric rotating with a wheel axle is not new What is new in the present improvements includes the construction'and arrangement of gong sounding parts which enables a striking hammer to be operated by an eccentric that shifts in bodily location relative to the chassis of the vehicle on which the gong is carried, and further includes the arrangement of parts wherein mechanical resonance in some resilient portion of a hammer device or its actuating mechanism defeats striking of the gong by the hammer at certain relatively high frequencies of mechanical impulsing of the harnmer, while causing the gong to be struck by the hammer at certain relatively low frequencies of mechanical impulsing of the hammer. This precludes the gong from sounding when a toy train ,is traveling at full speeds along a right of way and automatically brings the striking of the gong into effect when the train has slowed down from full speed on approaching a station or before the train has attained its speed in departing from the station.

As a non-limiting example, structural specifications which will function satisfactorily are represented in the relative locations and proportional sizes of parts shown in FIG. 1 wherein the active coil length of spring 61 may be about $5 comprising about 60 convolutions of .007 diameter spring wire close wound to about outside diameter of coil. The coil should be extendable lengthwise a distance of without taking a permanent set. The resilient strip 52 may have a free length of 1% and a width of /s and if of hard, spring phosphor bronze, may be .007 thick. To suit the above conditions the major diametrical span of cam 56 can be /8" and its minordiametrical span 7 The weight of the hammer head 51 can be .163 ounce. The lengths of the osoillative parts may be sealed in their illustrated proportions to an actual wheel size of about diameter for the traction tread surface of the wheel.

It is preferred thatthe striking of the gong by the .hammer should begin when the train has accelerated or ,decelerated to within a range of linear speed of'train travel of about 19 feet to 75 feet per minute. Above and below such range of speed the hammer 51, 52 will oscillate in strokes that are too short to reach the gong which therefore will remain silent because the rapidity of mechanical impulsin g of bell crank 54 by cam 56 does not permit sufiicient time for the inertia of hammer head 51 to be overcome by the driving force of the resilient 'arm 52. -One of the features of relative arrangement of gong 42 and the hammer device giving rise to the ability ofthe gong to be struck elfectively in the variety of positions that truck may assume relatively to chassis 13, is that the gap between hammer head 51 and the rim 5'0 of'the gong is above and approximately in axial alignment with the pivot 38 about which truck 15 swivels in relation to the chassis.

Current is picked up from opposite, relatively insulated track rails 26, 2 6, by wheels 20 and 39 on the respective motor trucks 14 and 15. The pair of wheels on the far side of truck 14 in FIG. 1 are insulated from their axles and the pair of wheels on the near 'side of truck 15 in FIG. 1 are insulated from their axles at 59. Various lead wires 32 conduct current from truck 14 to the propulsion motor 19 through the reversing relay 28- and serve to ground said motor and relay to the metallic chassis 13. Current can be picked up to equivalent effect by a collector type of shoe 30 on the near side of truck 14 in FIG. 1 and a similar shoe 33 on the far side of truck 15, each shoe being spring urged downward to wipe against the track rail. As in conventional wiring systems for toy locomotives the locomotive can be started, stopped and run at selected speeds by varying the voltageimpressed uponthe track rails. In all swiveled and'tilted positions of truck 15 it will be seenthat the hammer 51 will strike gong 42 only at predeterminedfrequencies of hammer impulsing, as for instance are occasioned by the linear speeds of travel of the locomotive hereinbefore mentioned. Accomplishment of desired tonal effect as well as range of locomotive speed within which it is desired that the bell shall ring is determined by the gap existing between the hammer and the bell when the former is idle. Other influencing factors are the reactive relationships of the weight of hammer 51 and the flexural and resilient properties of arm52.

Other kinds of reverberative bodies may be substituted for gong 42 and other types of gong striking hammer devices may be substituted for the parts 51, 54 as well as for the impulsing parts 56 and '60. Other departure may be made from the exact proportional sizes and positional relationship of parts herein mentioned to illustrate the principles of the invention as defined in the appended claims and the claims are intended to embrace all such variations which fall within a broad interpretation of the terms used therein.

What is claimed is:

1. Bell ringing apparatus for a toy rolling vehicle equipped with pivotal wheel trucks, comprising in combination with a chassis of the rolling stock, a wheeled truck beneath and pivotally connected to said chassis to swivel relatively thereto, -a rotor journaled in said truck including a road wheel, an eccentric connected to revolve with said rotor, a reverberative body stationed on and at least partially above said chassis, a hammer device pivotally mounted on .said truck for reciprocative movement in directions toward and away from said body and upstanding from said truck to a level above said chassis, and means for impulsing said hammer device in said directions operably related to said eccentric in a manner to be impulsed thereby at frequencies proportioned to the revolutions of said road wheel as determined by the linear speed of travel of said vehicle.

2. Mechanism as defined in claim 1, in which the said hammer device comprises aleaf spring, together with a weight carried by said leaf spring in position to be flung thereby. into contact with the said reverberative body, said weight being sufliciently heavy in proportion to the resilient strength of said leaf spring to cause said spring to flex responsively to the inertia of said weight when the said means for actuating said hammer device is impulsed by the said eccentric.

3. Bell ringing mechanism for a toy locomotive having wheeled trucks, comprising in combination with the chassis of a toy locomotive, a truck pivotally connected to the said chassis in a manner to tilt about -a horizontal axis through a range of tipped positions relatively to said chassis, track wheels pivotally mounted on said truck, a reverberative body stationed on said chassis, a hammer device movably mounted on said truck in a manner when irnpulsed to reciprocate in directions toward and away from. said body in a variety of said tipped positions of said truck, and an actuator on said truck operably related to said wheels in a manner to be driven thereby, said actuator being operatively related to said hammer device to impulse the same in a manner causing said hammer device to strike said body repeatedly while the locomotive is traveling.

4. Bell ringing mechanism for a toy locomotive having wheeled trucks, comprising in combination with the chassis of a toy locomotive, a truck pivotally connected thereto to swivel about a vertical axis through a range of positions relatively to said chassis, track wheels pivotally mounted on said truck, a reverberative body stationed on said chassis, a hammer device movably mounted on said truck in a manner when irnpulsed to reciprocate in directions toward and away from said body in a variety of said positions to which said truck may swivel, and an actuator on said truck operably related to said wheels in a manner to be driven thereby, said actuator being operatively related to said hammer device to impulse the same in a manner causing said hammer device to strike said body repeatedly while the locomotive is traveling.

5. Bell ringing mechanism as defined in claim 4, in

which the said truck is pivotally connected to the said chassis in a manner to tilt through a range of tipped positions about a horizontal axis relatively to said chassis, and the said hammer device is movably mounted on said truck in a manner when impulsed to reciprocate in directions toward and away from the said body in a variety of said tipped positions to which said truck may tilt.

6. Bell ringing mechanism for toy train rolling stock comprising in combination with a truck having traction wheels, a vehicle body pivotally connected to said truck to ride thereon in variable relation thereto, a gong on said vehicle body, an actuator journaled in said truck connected to be rotated by said Wheels, a bell crank pivotally mounted on said truck having a first arm operatively engageable by said actuator and having a second arm extending into striking contact with said gong, together with resilient means connecting said first arm to said truck in a manner to urge said first arm toward said actuator.

7. Bell ringing mechanism as defined in claim 6, in

which the said actuator is a cam having at least two relatively high portions and two relatively low portions serially engaging the said first arm of the said bell crank as the actuator rotates for thereby impulsing the latter at least twice during one revolution of the said truck wheels.

8. Bell ringing mechanism as defined in claim 6, in which the said truck is connected to the said vehicle body by a pivot having a vertical axis, and the said gong is separated from the said first arm of the said bell crank by a gap located over and in substantial alignment with the said pivotal axis.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 273,347 Carr Mar. 6, 1883 488,342 Wilkins Dec.- 20, 1892 2,133,530 Beutlich Oct. 18, 1938 

